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From the NAI Archive – January 26, 2015 – Royal Rumble Reactions

OK, folks, since most of you are still raging, let’s use this as a place to get our thoughts and feelings out.

Overall, I thought the Rumble PPV was . . . just about “good”. Not totally good, nowhere near great, but not as bad as many of you seem to believe, which, I might add, is totally your opinion.

The pre-show match was tremendous. Cesaro and Kidd really need to be the next contenders to the tag team titles. Solid back and forth match, unexpected victory for the heels, and those Brass Ring Club shirts were hilarious. I wonder if they were something those guys “snuck” in, considering Adam Rose had a different shirt on for his Rumble appearance.

New Age Outlaws vs. Ascension was fine. Billy Gunn looks to me like he could still have a 2-3 month run as IC champ, the Road Dogg really needs some sort of on camera role with WWE or WWE Network, and The Ascension went over. Again, didn’t expect that. I know it’s really how it should have happened, but I was surprised.

I still don’t think Konnor and Viktor are any stronger for beating an old retired tag team, but at least they might be moving forward. If this is the start of a “legend killer” tag storyline, I’m OK with it.

Usos vs. Miz and Mizdow was disappointing. I really think WWE is running the risk of ruining the Sandow momentum by keeping him away from in-ring action. There’s a fine line between making fans salivate to see you and making them aggravated. Shockingly, aggravation was a theme of last night’s action.

The Diva’s Tag Match was. . . . Not something I watched. Having two matches where one person isn’t tagged in doesn’t make a lot of sense. I expected Paige to attack Natalya after the match. I have no idea what they’re doing with the Divas division.

Lesnar vs. Rollins vs. Cena was as good a title match as I’ve seen in a long, long time. Seriously, its going to be MOTY candidate at the end of this year. Lesnar was even more dominant than he was at Summer Slam (in addition, he just looked healthier), Cena did his part as well as you can expect, and Rollins. . .

Seth Rollins is THE MAN in WWE right now, no matter who might have been standing tall at the end of last night. He had an all-time moment with that dive onto Lesnar, broke out a Phoenix splash just for fun-sies, it seemed, and just generally looked like the best wrestler in the world.

Last night was the moment I officially became a HUGE Rollins fan. Cash in at Mania, Seth. Make things right.

As for The Royal Rumble. . . Might be easier to take this a piece at a time.

– Bubba Ray was a great way to spark the crowd. Using R-Truth as a pseudo- D-Von wasn’t necessary. Dudley getting eliminated rather quickly wasn’t necessary either. This proves to me that this was just to pop the crowd, and Bubba won’t be back full time.

– Luke Harper should have been in the Rumble longer. He had a fun moment with Bubba, and if I’m not mistaken, we’re heading towards a Wyatt Triple Threat at Wrestlemania, which I’m not at all opposed with.

– Bray Wyatt was a BEAST. I don’t care that it was mainly lower card guys, he was awesome. This was the high point of my Rumble. I really want 2015 to be the year of Bray Wyatt.

– The Boogeyman. . . Meh.

– I like that Zack Ryder had a little bit of offense. That’s as optimistic as I have been on him in quite some time.

– Daniel Bryan. . . I honestly don’t mind that he didn’t make it to the Final Four. I would have liked it (especially since I predicted him to win the whole thing), but the fact that he didn’t make it is fine by me. The crowd in Philly obviously disagreed.

I really think that if they had let Bryan last to the Final Four, then get eliminated, they wouldn’t have been so upset. They made him seem like an afterthought, which makes me worry that this is truly what WWE thinks of him.

Daniel Bryan vs. Fandango? Could happen.

– I posted this on Twitter earlier, but it bears repeating. Jack Swagger, Big E and Stardust all had longer Rumble matches than Daniel Bryan. Scary.

– There’s not a whole lot more I really want to say about the Rumble, except for this.

I totally talked myself into a Kane winning storyline. He turns on the Authority, becomes the demon once again, and sets out to avenge his brother at Mania. Could even put his career on the line.

Lesnar “retires” Taker one year and Kane the next? Awesome.

– Overall, the Rumble match was a disappointment, if only because by the time we got to the Final Four it was fait accompli who was going to win.

Plus, The Rock had to help. How does that make Reigns look strong for Mania?

And what was Triple H and Steph doing out there? What was that rationale?